Various types of removable storage media are known in the art, these include optical media such as CDs DVDs and optical tapes and magnetic media such as magnetic tapes and discs. Media drives are used to read and write data to the media.
Magnetic tape drives are used to write and read data from magnetic tape media. The operation of a tape drive is controlled by firmware. The firmware includes programs and functions that control the operation of the drive and configuration data that stores the settings of the drive.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,979 computer readable magnetic tape medium for automatically updating the firmware of a magnetic tape apparatus is disclosed. The magnetic tape drive has a firmware memory containing firmware, and a controller for controlling the drive by executing the firmware. The controller causes the magnetic tape apparatus to read a volume identifier mark data from a magnetic tape and to detect a volume identifier contained in the volume identifier mark. The controller causes the magnetic tape apparatus to determine that the data is firmware if the volume identifier contains a control code. The controller causes the magnetic tape apparatus to overwrite the firmware memory of the magnetic tape drive apparatus if the data is firmware.